Swindon Town vs. Fulham Official Matchday Thread

[Iffy's Onion Bhaji]

Well I thought we played well and were unlucky to come away with nothing. Our passing was very good and had we had better wigners (both O'Brien and JP not playing on the wing today) we could have created a lot more. Same goes for the formation. 4-4-2 and maybe we'd have got something? Douglas was superb today. He showed exactly why he used to be a Premier League footballer a few years back. We're very lucky to have a player of such quality. Ferry and JP also played well and they run the show from midfield.

I have to say though that despite all of the above we still had not creation or cutting edge. We reallly missed Charlie Austin today. He gets into the positions and creates attacks first off. We could have really done with a fox in the box today. I think today is a little bit of evidence that he has been the difference between us winning and drawing since he began to start.

[Stef Troll]

Interesting video of Roy Hodgson's interview after the game on the Fulham home page if anybody is interested. The man speaks a lot of sense.

http://www.fulhamfc.com/home.aspx

Yeh great interview.  Hodgson is one of the only few managers nowadays who tells it as it is and doesnt bullshit.

[Iffy's Onion Bhaji]

Oh I forgot to mention Sheehan as well. Also very good today. Sign him up please Wilson.

[DiV]

He showed exactly why he used to be a Premier League footballer a few years back.

He scored 1 Premier League goal.

I'll give you one guess as to where he scored it.

[Chubbs]

i cheated so i was gonna let someone eles have a guess but then through, they'd just cheat aswell.

fulham.

[chalkies_shorts]

A good day out that hopefully shows Fitton the potential of the fanbase. Drank in the Boathouse in Putney before the game - good mix of Town and Fulham. Douglas was pure class today - if only he pulled the trigger a bit earlier in the first half.  Agree about Hutchinson that he showed more effort but he's still a uselees lazy selfish cunt who despite raising his game was still pure shit. Ferry put in a decent shift as did JPM. Cuthbert did one quality tackle in the 2nd half right in front of us.
Johnson was a wanker but fair play to him at the end.
As for their goal, like JFL, Greer does not like the ball played over him or when he's on the back foot. Zamora took the goal well but Greer was outmuscled very easily.
Great support today but it lookedl ike it was going to kick off in the Dickens Inn near Paddington when I left at 8. If it did, there was no need for it. If it didn't then good. Somefans can't handle their ale.
Oh yes, and if it was a Town fan who put the windown  through of the 8:06 then you are a fucking retard.

[Iffy's Onion Bhaji]

Glad I got the 7:15 back from Paddington then judging by that post.

[westcountry]

Good day it was,

Drank in the Kings Arms, t'was fucking buzzin.
Atmosphere was good, bit hard to get a song going at the start though, but picked up. Thought Ferry was quality as well as Sheehan and Cuthbert. Dempsey wasnt good at all for them, Greening was there best player i thought ran the middle.

Nice to see so many Swindon fans as expected, but will be interesting to see how many come next week, hopefully 1,000+ but can't see it.

[Saxondale]

Just looking at some reports on the match, mostly pretty fair except this cunt.  A little bit biased?  A fulham fan perhaps?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/jan/02/fa-cup-fulham-swindon-town?

[pauld]

Just looking at some reports on the match, mostly pretty fair except this cunt.  A little bit biased?  A fulham fan perhaps?

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/jan/02/fa-cup-fulham-swindon-town?

Bears no relation to the game I saw.

[DMR]

What a fuckin day, absolutely mint.

Thought we played very well without much cutting edge. Initial impressions given I've hardly seen us play for a year: Douglas = god, JPM = improved loads but still a bit of a wimp when he needs to get stuck in, Ward = potential to be class, touch of Coxy about some of his movement, Greer = fuckin hopeless, Lucas = god, Sheehan = god, everyone else decent.

I'm very drunk n very tired, so some/all of that may be deemed nonsense.

Proud Town fan today.

[Bogus Dave]

If we played like that against any league one team we'd have won. Ah well, nowt more to add then that really.

Special mention to the retard in front of me though, discussion paraphrased as follows:

Me: Oooooh paynter got a bit head down there, he had two players in to his left.
Twat In Front: Fuck off, get behind the team. I bet your one of those day trippers here because its a big team.
M: No, i have a season ticket and have had one for a few seasons now.
T I F: Bet you sit in the arkells dont you, miserable fuck
M: No, Don Rogers actually
T I F: Yeahhh, you're all the same. Bet you wont't be at wycombe next week (?)

I decided to end there, as i wasn't going to win against someone who is an obviously better fan than i am. The fact the Twat In Front then went on to lay into hutchinson at every single oppurtunity only added to the irony

[dell boy]

As everyone before has said Douglas was in a class of his own, best player on the pitch. I dont think any Town player let the club down. I feel we were robbed not getting a replay.

Zamora what a brut of a player, he just out-muscled Greer for the goal, and he would do that to many centre halfs in the Prem, so not going to blame Greer for the goal, the only way he could possibly stop him was to bring him down, concede a penalty and we would be down to ten men.

Johnson what a prick - there might have been contact but he went over very easily as he has done all his career.

Not sure if it has been mentioned earlier, the police coming out with 10 minutes to go and standing facing the Swindon supporters and then leaving to go back from where they came from with cheers from us of 'you don't know what you're doing', very funny.

ITV highlights, Swindon get about 30 seconds, the goal and the penalty is all they show.

Didnt get home until 09.30, pretty pissed, quality day out. Hope those stay away home fans who went to the game and experienced a fantastic atmosphere will turn up the Gillingham game in a couple of weeks time.

[jimmy_onions]

Echo most of whats been written on here.

Was meeting friends on the 10.40 ish train from swine to paddington. I got to the station early and witnessed about 3 or 4 earlier trains set off, each one choc a block with town fans - a lovely sight.
Along with Chalkies Shorts, we also drunk in the boathouse beforehand. A nice pub but I personally would have preferred a sing song.

As for the game, agree with pretty much everything that has been written on here, but a few more observations for what its worth:

 - although Hutchinson was on the whole ineffective (on two seperate occasions amankwah had the ball on the wing and the position was crying out for a hutch overlap and he just stood there on the line like a lemon, seemingly clueless), ironically, I did feel that when macklin came on for hutch we seemed to lose a little cohesion and bite. Macklin was poor I thought.

 - twas a shame we weren't shooting towards the our fans in the second half, I think that would have given us the edge to snatch something.

 - twas also a shame our midfielders didnt chance a punt at goal on the numerous occasions when they were camped just oputside the box in the 2nd half, doesn't have to be a screamer, all it takes is a lucky ricochet to mix things up a little.

 - Great effort by us on the atmosphere front, shame we didnt quite manage to get wise men say going properly though.

 - Had a quick drink in the Sports bar over the bridge after the game and then onto a pub just ouitside earls court tube for a couple more. Saw town fans dotted everywhere all night. Again, a lovely site and lets hope we can have some more aways days like that in the future.

Finally, as my travelling companion noted on journey home whilst discussing Fulham fans lack of vocal support, "I would hate to support a team like Fulham" !!

ps. would be nice to see a pic of the away end, if anyone can find one.
ps2 ITV highlights were shite (as is the whole program)
ps3 fair play to carlisle, good turn out, and they had a goal to cheer

[Barnard]

Good performance from the team, particularly the midfield who certainly didn't look like they belonged two divisions below the opposition. Hutchinson may have put in a bit more effort, but was ineffective and simply not good enough, he really shouldn't feature in our side again and I will be completely bemused if his loan is extended. Sheehan needs to be made a permanent signing, he really completes a competent defence.

Fulham did look dangerous going forward, and from where I was it looked like a stonewall penalty. The actual spot kick itself was absolutely laughable though, although not as laughable as their home support. Were they actually there, or do Fulham use cardboard cutouts to fill their stands?

Our support was excellent, I really hope that the atmosphere and performance can boost our home gates for the rest of the season.

The only downside of the day was the utterly inept policing on the 20:00 from Paddington, where First Great Western and British Transport Police decided to halt and then cancel the train at Reading as the result of what sounded like a bit of 'High spirited' behaviour from town fans in one of the rear carriages. The result was an awful lot of pissed up and pissed off fans being held on the platform for the best part of an hour and then being herded onto the next train coming . From what I heard on the platform it was a total overreaction.